Unite the resistance: Conferences to fight back

Trade unionists, anti‑cuts activists and others are preparing for Unite the Resistance conferences to help build the fight against the Tories.

A regional conference will take place in Glasgow on Saturday 9 March.

Members of the EIS, PCS, Unison and BFAWU unions will speak alongside campaigners for disability rights.

Jim Main is a Unison rep who has been helping to organise the conference.

“The conference is a chance for people to come together and plan action,” he told Socialist Worker in a personal capacity.

Helen McCourt has been part of a campaign to save the Accord day care centre in Dalmarnock, Glasgow.

Helen stressed that the cuts are creating new opportunities to build resistance. “There’s a lot of anger around,” she said.

“The people of Glasgow need to unite and stop these cuts. That’s why the conference is very important. If we get enough people together I think we can do it.”

Unite the Resistance also held a meeting in solidarity with the cleaners’ strike in Newcastle on Thursday of last week. Reps from the dispute spoke and branches of Unison, Unite, PCS and UCU made donations to the strike fund.

RMT union general secretary Bob Crow described this kind of solidarity as “the bedrock of the trade union movement”.

Unite the Resistance conferences are planned for Sheffield on 16 March and for the North West of England on 13 April.

Go to uniteresist.org

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